Using Information From Natural Analogs in Repository Performance Analysis: Examples from Oklo
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meeting, the Technical Committee and a performance assessment representative from ENRESA discussed ways in which the project information might be better structured to communicate with PA workers. In December 1997, a second meeting of the PA Interface Group discussed three specific focus areas: spent fuel stability, radionuclide behavior at the near-field to far-field interface, and radionuclide retardation mechanisms through sorption and secondary mineral formation. The most recent meeting of the PA Interface Group was held in Helsinki in conjunction with the 2nd annual Oklo Project meeting and included a wider group of participants, including interested parties who were from countries not participating actively in the Okio Project. These meetings have opened a dialog between the project participants and those involved in the work of long term assessment of the behavior of a geologic repository. They have increased the understanding between the two groups of workers, but a great deal remains to be done before results from the Oklo Project can be included quantitatively in PA analyses. In the discussion that follows, data related to the Oklo natural analogues have been taken from the summary report for the Oklo Phase I project [1], from the reports presented at the annual meetings of the Phase II project [2, 31, and from the Phase II project final report[4].
545 Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 608 © 2000 Materials Research Society
POTENTIAL FOR USE OF RESULTS FROM OKLO IN PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE REPOSITORIES Uses and Limitations of Natural Analogues Research and development activities related to nuclear waste repositories have benefited from pre-existing knowledge in the fields of geology, geochemistry, and engineering. Geology and geochemistry were used to evaluate rock types for general suitability as repository host rocks, especially with respect to the interaction of ground water with the rock. The response of different rock types to heat and fluid circulation was known through studies of burial of sediments, diagenesis, regional metamorphism, and local thermal events such as volcanic intrusions. Mining engineering contributed information concerning the response of rock bodies to excavation. In this sense, the evaluation of natural geologic systems represented the start of "performance assessments" for waste repositories. We should, therefore, not be too surprised if further
studies of geologic occurrences of specific minerals or ores fail to produce startling revelations. Laboratory studies of potential waste products, container materials, and other engineered components that might be used in a radioactive waste repository form the framework of studies that will enable us to evaluate the potential future behavior of a waste disposal system. Even these studies have limitations, since we have to predict the future based on our understanding of past behavior of materials under conditions that only approximate those that will pertain in the repository. Our extrapolations are based on our und
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